A NOTE FROM NORTH BRITAIN. 75 



" Gask Kennel, Turriff, N. B., Febry ye 24. 



" My dear H , 



" Many thanks for ye ' Stave/ which I 

 rec^ at Keit/i Hall, where I went to keep my 

 Xmas, ye 20*^ of last month, 18 miles distant 

 from this kennel, ye centre of my country ; you'll 

 find this last season, or else I am greatly mistaken, 

 that a few have had uncommon sport, but that ye 

 majority with Ego I have had but very middling, 

 owing entirely to a total want of ye sine qua 7ion 

 and untoward Boreas unhunting like weather — 

 when I left ' that ere Vale,' between Farringdon 

 and Lydiard woods, I bid adieu to real fox-hunt- 

 ing, but this Johny Groat's House Country, as it is, 

 w*^ delight old Codrington cum multis aliis of my 

 acquaintance. When I got down the Man whose 

 Ancester Johny Cope ran away from Preston Kirk 

 there, he exclaimed to me in ye heart of it one 

 Summer day. How could you move from home 

 when you had a country like this, so handy to 

 y use ? I replied, ye Lack and ye love of So- 

 ciety. I regretted very much, H , you had 



not time to have run down by the Mail, and have 

 taken a look at my Tykes, I^ have shown you as 

 perfect, for her inches, a Bitch by old Valiant, as 

 ever stood on ye flags of a kennel. I understand 

 Moreton has had a good season and a capital run, 



